EO (2022)

 ☆ ☆ ☆ ½

EO (2022) – J. Skolimowski

This one ends up in the category of movies I wanted to like more. After all, it is an homage to Bresson’s great Au Hasard, Balthasar (1966) which was itself a great concept (Jesus-like donkey witnesses the weaknesses of humankind).  But as others have noted, whereas Bresson pays more attention to his human characters, director Jerzy Skolimowski (Deep End, 1970) gives us the donkey’s eye-view (sometimes psychedelically so).  Structured episodically, the film follows the donkey from setting to setting, from circus to stable to slaughterhouse, providing numerous opportunities to witness humankind’s cruelty to animals, treated as entertainment, beasts of burden, or food.  As such, the film is rather single-minded, unless the rare scraps of dialogue from the human characters (including, briefly Isabelle Huppert) can be mined for deeper themes (humans are also cruel to humans here). Naturally, EO suffers through all this – but viewers don’t have to, because Skolimowski and his team (Cinematographer Michal Dymek and Composer Pawel Mykietyn deserve special mention) make the film an enjoyable ride, full of a variety of audio and visual delights. If you let it wash over you, it is sure to be an impactful experience, but for those hoping to piece together a plot (beyond just the overall schematic), perhaps less so.